Method and apparatus for hole measurement
A method and apparatus for measuring hole parameters by using a probe signal have been disclosed.
This patent application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/868,721 filed Dec. 5, 2006 titled “Method and Apparatus for Hole Measurement”, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention pertains to measurement. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring a hole.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONManufacturing generally involves many operations including, but not limited to the formation of indentations, depressions, ways, slots, punching, bores, and holes. For the sake of discussion reference to all of these will be by the use of the word(s) hole, holes, etc. or something similar.
A common situation in manufacturing is the measurement of holes. When the holes are very small it may be difficult to measure the parameters of a hole or bore, such as but not limited to, depth, diameter, bevel, edges, roundness, etc. This may present a problem.
Measurement of a hole by direct contact with a measuring instrument may affect the hole (e.g. scratching, gouging, foreign deposits, etc.) or the instrument (e.g. material on the instrument, damage to the instrument, etc.) and not yield good consistent results. This may present a problem.
The invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:
For discussion purposes the definition of the depth of hole B depends on the user or customer. I.e. it may be considered to be 310 or 310 plus 314 or to the middle of the bevel 312. For the purposes of discussion the measurement techniques disclosed the distinction is not germane to the invention.
Measurement of holes A and B is illustrated for the sake of discussion as this type of measurement is often needed, however, the invention is not so limited and may measure indentations, multiple holes, a single hole, etc.
The embodiment in
The embodiment in
The embodiment in
The embodiment in
The embodiment in
One of skill in the art will recognize also that the probe 420 and sheet 402 can form a tuned circuit and that the inductance and capacitance will determine the center frequency of such a circuit.
For example, in one embodiment, in
Other embodiments of the invention are also possible, for example, in
In one embodiment the transfer of fluids from probes on sheet 502 for example may simply be timed with the time measurement indicative of the hole parameters.
Embodiments of the present invention include both an apparatus, and a method.
In another embodiment, as illustrated in
Thus a method and apparatus for hole measurement have been described.
While the present invention has been illustrated via embodiments showing a single measurement signal, and a round fixed diameter hole, one of skill in the art will appreciate that the techniques disclosed may be used where multiple measurement signals are present and the “holes” may be of any arbitrary shape and slope. For example, ovals, ellipses, irregular indentations, tapered holes, chambered edges, etc. Additionally the techniques may be combined. For example, a fluid flow measurement may be performed before or at the same time that an acoustic measurement is being performed.
One of skill in the art will appreciate that the probe signal whether it be electrical, acoustic, radioactive, etc. in nature may be affected by and influenced by the hole parameters. Additionally, the probe signal will also be affected by the sheet material and the probe material. For example if the sheet material is an insulator then leakage current may be low and another probe signal (e.g. acoustic) may yield a better measurement.
Thus a method and apparatus for hole measurement have been described.
Referring back to
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For purposes of discussing and understanding the invention, it is to be understood that various terms are used by those of skill in the art to describe techniques and approaches. Furthermore, in the description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one of skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those of skill in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Some portions of the description may be presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on, for example, data bits within a computer memory, and/or logic circuitry. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those of skill in the arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others of skill in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of acts leading to a desired result. The acts are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, can refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.
Further, any of the methods according to the present invention can be implemented in hardware, fluidics, hard-wired circuitry, by programmable logic, or by any combination of hardware and software.
An apparatus for performing the operations herein can implement the present invention. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer, selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks, compact disk-read only memories (CD-ROMs), and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), electrically programmable read-only memories (EPROM)s, electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), FLASH memories, magnetic or optical cards, etc., or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions either local to the computer or remote to the computer.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method. For example, any of the methods according to the present invention can be implemented in hard-wired circuitry, by programming a general-purpose processor, or by any combination of hardware and software. One of ordinary skill in the art will immediately appreciate that the invention can be practiced with computer system configurations other than those described, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, digital signal processing (DSP) devices, set top boxes, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. The invention can also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network.
The methods of the invention may be implemented using computer software. If written in a programming language conforming to a recognized standard, sequences of instructions designed to implement the methods can be compiled for execution on a variety of hardware platforms and for interface to a variety of operating systems. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein. Furthermore, it is common in the art to speak of software, in one form or another (e.g., program, procedure, application, driver, . . . ), as taking an action or causing a result. Such expressions are merely a shorthand way of saying that execution of the software by a computer causes the processor of the computer to perform an action or produce a result.
It is to be understood that various terms and techniques are used by those knowledgeable in the art to describe communications, protocols, applications, implementations, mechanisms, etc. One such technique is the description of an implementation of a technique in terms of an algorithm or mathematical expression. That is, while the technique may be, for example, implemented as executing code on a computer, the expression of that technique may be more aptly and succinctly conveyed and communicated as a formula, algorithm, or mathematical expression. Thus, one of skill in the art would recognize a block denoting A+B=C as an additive function whose implementation in hardware and/or software would take two inputs (A and B) and produce a summation output (C). Thus, the use of formula, algorithm, or mathematical expression as descriptions is to be understood as having a physical embodiment in at least hardware and/or software (such as a computer system in which the techniques of the present invention may be practiced as well as implemented as an embodiment).
A machine-readable medium is understood to include any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals which upon reception causes movement in matter (e.g. electrons, atoms, etc.) (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.
As used in this description, “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” or similar phrases means that the feature(s) being described are included in at least one embodiment of the invention. References to “one embodiment” in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment; however, neither are such embodiments mutually exclusive. Nor does “one embodiment” imply that there is but a single embodiment of the invention. For example, a feature, structure, act, etc. described in “one embodiment” may also be included in other embodiments. Thus, the invention may include a variety of combinations and/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.
Thus a method and apparatus for hole measurement have been described.
Claims
1. A method comprising:
- establishing a first reference for a first probe signal;
- positioning a first probe for a hole measurement, wherein said positioning said first probe is placing said first probe in direct contact with a first surface around a hole in said first surface such that said first probe is in fluidic communication with said hole;
- measuring said first probe signal;
- evaluating said measured first probe signal;
- establishing a second reference for a second probe signal;
- positioning a second probe for said hole measurement, wherein said positioning said second probe is placing said second probe in direct contact with a second surface around said hole in said second surface such that said second probe is in fluidic communication with said hole;
- measuring said second probe signal; and
- evaluating said measured second probe signal.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first reference is a first reference pressure, and wherein said second reference is a second reference pressure.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said first probe signal is a first probe pressure, and wherein said second probe signal is a second probe pressure.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said evaluating said measured first probe signal and said evaluating said measured second probe signal further comprises relating said first probe pressure and said second probe pressure to a parameter of said hole.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein said parameter is selected from the group consisting of depth, diameter, bevel, edges, roundness, and roughness.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Dec 5, 2007
Date of Patent: Jan 4, 2011
Inventor: Alan Heimlich (San Jose, CA)
Primary Examiner: R. A. Smith
Application Number: 11/951,261
International Classification: G01B 13/10 (20060101); G01B 13/16 (20060101);